mutual
by hanalea
Summary: Gon doesn't like chocolate.


I like jealous Gon. There needs to be more jealous Gon and less jealous Killua in the world.

. . . .

Gon rests his eyes on his feet, watching as they press into the snow and leave soft marks in the ground behind them. It takes all his concentration to keep the pout off his face. He might be unhappy about all this, but that doesn't mean he has to let the bitterness blackening his insides affect Killua's good mood.

"Whoa! Look at this one, Gon! It's actually in the shape of a heart." Killua holds up a piece of chocolate, but Gon's eyes only faintly trace the outline of it before darting back to his feet. "These girls go all out for this. I don't really care about the shape, as long as it still tastes good."

There's a loud crunch as Killua takes a bite out of the chocolate, breaking a corner off the heart. He lets out a low hum, sweetness pervading from his mouth.

"Valentine's Day is, without a doubt, the best day of the year," he says once he's finished chewing the chocolate.

"Hmm," Gon answers.

_He seems to be enjoying this_, Gon thinks. Getting chocolate from random girls at school that they haven't even spoken to, accepting it all without a thought. Gon knows that Killua took the chocolate out of love for the sweets, not for the girls—or did he? Gon's throat tightens uncomfortably—but he doesn't have to be so enthusiastic about it.

"How much chocolate did you get, Gon?" Killua asks as they trot along the snow-covered road. The world around them is covered in white, their black coats smeared across the scenery like an afterthought of a painting. Killua would fit in nicely if not for the coat—his pale hair and silver skin look like they belong here in this world.

_Not like me_, Gon thinks. His dark skin and inky hair should not exist in this land of white, where stars lay crested in the snow and where even the shadows aren't black. It's times like these when Gon actually feels apart from Killua, like they should not even exist in the same reality.

"I got a little bit, I guess. Not as much as you, though." Gon grins at Killua the best he can, the corners of his mouth rising up jaggedly.

It isn't a total lie. Several girls did offer him some chocolate—Gon just didn't take any of it. He didn't feel right accepting the chocolate if he couldn't accept the feelings that were put into it as well.

Killua is quiet, but his eyes do not leave Gon's. Gon looks at him with a warning in his eyes, knowing what he wants. "No, you can't have my chocolate," he says.

"Ha? Why not? You don't even like chocolate," Killua whines.

No, Gon really does not like chocolate. Especially not today, with that lone piece of chocolate still sitting in his bag, burning a hole in the back of Gon's mind. Still, he answers, "It's mine. So you can't have it."

"You're so stingy," Killua grumbles.

They cross over a bridge, and Killua wants to stop to reorganize his chocolate in his bag. Gon leans against the railing, and occasionally cars roll past them on the road. Gon watches Killua for a while—he's so focused on his chocolate that he doesn't notice Gon's stare; otherwise he'd get embarrassed immediately and make Gon look away.

Killua's eyes are set on his work, the blue shining out underneath his hair like stars. His cheeks are sprinkled with red—partly from the cold, partly from his excitement. The corners of his mouth are quirked up, and Gon knows how pleased Killua is to have all this chocolate. _Killua probably likes chocolate more than he likes me_, Gon thinks, only half-joking.

Gon's had the chocolate that he bought for Killua in his bag all day. It's not anything fancy, and it's just store-bought, but he still felt his mood sour when got to class in the morning and saw Killua already starting a stockpile of chocolate from other people. He didn't want his chocolate to just be thrown in that group with all the others—it's selfish, he knows, but he wanted his chocolate to be special.

But something about the way Killua looks now makes Gon want to give him the chocolate. Killua is so happy, and Gon wants to be one of the people who contributed to Killua's happiness, even if he's just one out of nearly a dozen. "Ne, Killua…" he starts, opening his bag. "Happy—"

"Happy Valentine's Day, Gon," Killua mumbles, his words quicker than Gon's. After grabbing the bar of chocolate out of his bag, Gon looks over at Killua.

Killua is also holding a piece of wrapped chocolate—a different one than Gon had seen in the pile of chocolate he'd gotten from those girls earlier. He extends it towards Gon silently and turns his face away, but Gon can see the red reaching all the way to his ears.

"What's this?" Gon asks, blinking slowly in surprise. Killua isn't giving him that chocolate…is he?

Killua lets out a loud huff. "_I said_, happy Valentine's Day." He pushes the chocolate closer to Gon and his shoulders heave in annoyance.

"That's for me?" Gon cocks his head and furrows his eyebrows.

"Of course, idiot!" Killua barks out, his blush turning his cheeks permanently red.

Gon lets out a bright giggle, and wonders what that light, cottony feeling in his chest is. He grabs the chocolate out of Killua's hands. "And this is for you, Killua!" He pulls the chocolate out of his bag and offers it to his friend. "Happy Valentine's Day!"

Killua's eyes widen and he accepts the chocolate wordlessly. "Thanks," he finally murmurs.

That night, when Gon gets home, he eats the chocolate he got from Killua immediately. It tastes better than he thought it would, considering he doesn't like chocolate all that much.

When Killua gets home, he finishes all the other chocolate he got from school. But he puts Gon's chocolate in the fridge and keeps it for about a week—looking at it sometimes when he's bored and making sure Milluki keeps away from it—before finally eating it.


End file.
